Golf club fitting has been around since the early stages of the golf game. Early systems utilized manual measurements of golf clubs and players to determine the proper fit for each player. However, with the need for more advanced and accurate fitting methods and systems, sports enthusiasts have turned to technical innovations in an effort to improve their game, including the use of monitoring devices used to determine and display information specific to the enthusiast, such as a golfer's swing path. Golfers and golf club equipment manufacturers have been increasingly relying upon sensors and monitors to evaluate a golfer's swing. Sensors and monitors may track conditions, such as club head speed, attack angle, launch angle, golf ball spin rate and spin direction, and so on. And sellers of golf club equipment, including outlets that specialize in golf club fitting, increasingly rely on such sensors and monitors to assist a prospective purchaser in selecting golf clubs that best match their particular golf swing characteristics.
One such monitoring device that is commercially available is the “SB2” sensor, available from Swingbyte, LLC (previously Swingbyte, Inc.) of Chicago, Ill. Such sensors, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,696,482, incorporated herein by reference, are typically removeably attached to the shaft of a golf club, for example with a clamping mechanism, or fixed to the shaft, for example, with an adhesive. As is now known by virtue of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/564,933, filed Dec. 9, 2015, assigned to the assignee of the present application, hereby incorporated by reference, monitoring devices may also be placed within sporting apparatus, such as the head, shaft, and/or grip of golf clubs.
Such monitoring devices capture and analyze golf swing (or other sporting apparatus motion) data by attaching the monitoring device to a golf club either below the grip or on the cap, or by integrating the sensor into the shaft or head. After hitting a shot or swinging the golf club (or other sporting apparatus), players and instructors can view an interactive, three-dimensional animation of the swing, along with key metrics, such as club head speed, path, plane, and various angles at impact. Such monitoring devices may use a transmitter to send processed linear and angular movement data that defines a sporting apparatus swing, e.g., a golf club swing, to a receiver on a mobile device, such as a smart phone, tablet computer, or laptop computer. A computer application running on the mobile device may receive the processed data, process the data further and display a graphical representation of the entire swing with comprehensive statistics associated with the swing.
Yet, even with the implementation of sensors such as those discussed above, and the wide use of digital measurements in fitting golf clubs, fitting methods that utilize parameters of the swing of the golfer as measured by a sensor attached to a golf club have yet to be widely accepted and implemented.